Haunt Your House Contest, Registration Opens September 10, Community Voting Opens October 12. The competition gets stiffer every year. Westfield residents can sign up to enter one of two contests – one for daytime haunts, and one for haunts by night. Community members will tour the routes and vote for their favorites using an online map of participating homes from October 12 through October 30. Register at https://www.addamsfest.com/ haunt-your-house-2025
Self Defense Workshop, Friday, September 26. Break it like a Black Belt! Self Defense Workshop & Board Breaking Fundraiser. A fun, confidence boosting self-defense seminar open to the community ages 4+. Includes expert instruction, a board-breaking challenge, and supports the Y’s financial assistance program. $25/participant. Register online at westfieldynj.org/events. 220 Clark Street, Westfield.
Poetry Reading, September 29, 7 p.m. Poetry reading with Jared Beloff and Jessica de Koninck! Their reading will be followed by an open mic. duCret Center of Art, 1030 Central Avenue, Plainfield.
Sinatra Night. The Greater Westfield UNICO Chapter invites the community to an unforgettable evening of music, camaraderie, and charitable giving at Frank Sinatra Night on Wednesday, October 1 at The Crossroads in Garwood, presented by Northfield Bank. Enjoy a live performance celebrating the timeless songs of Frank Sinatra while supporting a great cause. Tickets are $50 per person cover charge for the event, with proceeds directly benefiting UNICO local scholarships and community initiatives. UNICO is a 501c3 Organization. Doors open at 6 pm with the show starting at 6:30 p.m. Contact UNICO at 908-313-8102 for tickets or go to the Greater Westfield UNICO website.
Wednesday Morning Club, Wednesday, October 1 at 10 a.m. All are invited to the Wednesday Morning Club’s General Meeting where the speaker will be Janet Ozoinicks, facilitator of the Literary Café who will discuss what the library has to offer. Cranford Community Center, 220 Walnut Ave, Cranford, NJ, 07016
The Wednesday Night Crawlers, Wednesday, October 8, 15, 22, and 29, 6 to 9 p.m. Participating locations in Downtown Westfield. No tickets or registration required Introducing The Wednesday Night Crawlers — a sinisterly spirited new addition to AddamsFest. Every Wednesday in October, beginning October 8, participating Downtown Westfield establishments will unveil their own signature AddamsFest cocktail, each one a nod to this year’s Femme Fatale theme. From smoky elixirs to wickedly seductive potions, these libations are designed to lure you in, one sip at a time. The official Wednesday Night Crawlers cocktail map will guide your nocturnal wanderings, making it frightfully easy to drift from lair to lair.
Femme Fatale: Morticia Addams and More , Weekends, October 10 to 26, Fridays, 5 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 6 p.m.; Sundays, 10 to 3 p.m. at Rialto Center for Creativity Beautiful. Mysterious. Independent. Dangerous. MorticiaAddams embodies these traits and so much more, making her the very definition of a femme fatale. This year’s AddamsFest art exhibit explores the complexities of Morticia, Wednesday, and the other women featured in CharlesAddams’cartoons and the work of other artists celebrating this fiery feminine mystique. A portion of the exhibit is curated in partnership with Galleria WestArt Gallery.
HOPE Fest 2025, Deutscher of Clark (787 Featherbed Lane, Clark, NJ 07066), Thursday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by and benefiting The Center for Hope Hospice & Palliative Care. Join us at the Deutscher Club of Clark for an unforgettable night of comedy, live music, dinner & door prizes…starring NEW JERSEY’S BAD BOY OF COMEDY…the one and only Mike Marino! Plus, live music from the Paul Marino Band! Dinner included with your ticket. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased at https:/ /fundraise.givesmart.com/e/ c9iZJg?vid=1kyyz4.
Morticia & Gomez’s Masquerade Ball, Friday, October 10, 8 to 11 p.m.. Advance ticket purchase required; on sale September 17. Prepare to be transported to an eccentric world of mischief and macabre. Join Morticia & Gomez Addams in high style to feast on Addamsinspired gourmet fare, sip smoldering libations, and dance the night away in an interactive setting. Perhaps the most elegantly odd event of AddamsFest, guests should dress to kill – or at le Much Ado about Nothing, October 11, 18, 24 and 25 at 8 p.m.; October 12 and 19 at 2 p.m. Westfield Community Players opens their season with Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing complete with flappers and gangsters a la Al Capone. Not quite how the Bard imagined it, but his comedy of love and deception transposes easily onto the JazzAge in this production, where the champagne and witticisms flow in equal abundance. Directed by David Baker. Tickets available at wcptheatre.org. Westfield Community Players, 1000 North Avenue West, Westfield.
Morticia Addams: A Different Kind of Woman, Sunday, October 12, 2 p.m. Westfield Memorial Library, Advance registration required and now open via https://wmlnj.org/. Morticia Addams represents a different kind of woman in television history and in real life. In her various iterations throughout the ‘60s and ’90s, Morticia stood as a feminist icon elucidated by her self-defined presence, parenting style, and fierce devotion to herself and family. Join Emma Straus for a discussion about the iconic matriarch of theAddams Family. Emma Straus is a writer, self-taught photographer, body painter, and creative from New Jersey. Her thesis, Defamiliarizing Gender: Gothic Laughter and Radical Joy in The Addams Family, focused on the revolutionary way the Addams Family subverted traditional gender norms and redened strangeness in the domestic sphere through nding joy in the frightful.
Lantern Cemetery Tours at the Presbyterian Church of Westfield, 140 MountainAvenue, Saturday, October 11, and Sunday, October 12, 5 to 6:30 p.m., running every ten minutes. No tickets or registration required; first come, first served. While other kids his age were out frolicking with friends, a young Charles Addams spent his time hanging out in Westfield’s oldest cemetery (of course he did). Take a lantern tour of these historic grounds, hosted by The Presbyterian Church of Westfield.
The Charles Addams Heritage Trail Tour, Saturday, October 11, 18, and 25, 11 a.m., Meet in front of the Rialto Center for Creativity, 250 East Broad Street. Advance ticket purchase required; on sale September 22 https:// www.addamsfest.com/ Charles Addams was just like any other kid who grew up in Westfield in the early 1900s…except when he wasn’t. Step back in time to see the sights of Westfield circa 1920 as you retraceAddams’steps from his home to school, downtown, and even to the cemetery where he spent his lazy afternoons (we TOLD you he wasn’t exactly like the other kids!).
Charlie’s Ale Garden, Saturday, October 18, 5 to 11 p.m., The Westfield Armory, 500 Rahway Avenue, Westfield.Advance ticket purchase required; on sale September 25 (Westfield residents) and September 30 (open to all). It wouldn’t be AddamsFest without Charlie’s Ale Garden at the Armory. Enjoy fantastic entertainment, including a great line-up of local bands and headliner Saved by the 90s. The most in-demand event of the season will once again feature beer and wine poured by Harvest Restaurant Group and food for purchase from a variety of food trucks. https:// www.addamsfest.com/
Addams Family Fun Day, Sunday, October 19, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Downtown Westfield. No tickets or registration required. From Pugsley to Grandmama, there’s something fun for everyone at Addams Family Fun Day. Head on over to Quimby Street in Downtown Westfield, which will be closed to cars for a day of family fun — including Addams Family character visits, pumpkin decorating, music and entertainment by the DJ Spinners, activities with local merchants, and more. Take the festivities a step further and embrace the Femme Fatale theme by dressing as Morticia or Wednesday to receive a limited-edition AddamsFest collectible.
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